Author's Note: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter VII

Clash With Cloud and Sand Storm

Danzo had never been so furious in all his life. The Talogans were headed for Cloud and he knew what business they had there and the worst part was he didn't know where the Talogans were. This made things worse. However, an eagle was dispatched to the Cloud Village to alert them to an upcoming attack from the Talogans.

That wasn't the only thing done. Konoha mobilized its entire army to move to Cloud and give them aid. However, it was soon decided to send half of their forces due to the possibility that the Talogans were making a false move and were preparing to strike Konoha instead. A wise move nonetheless but it did mean that Cloud would have less likely of a chance to win if they did get attacked.

With the Talogans, Falcon had decided to move his men into the forests near the Mist Village's ruins. Now he and his generals had to decide a new move and one that would devastate the Axis Alliance.

"I say we make an attack on the Hidden Cloud Village and annihilate the Sand Village." General Kiro said as he studied their maps. "Good choice, if we originally attacked Cloud Village like we originally planned, we would have more trouble since that survivor escaped. It would be best to split the army in half and have the one half heads for Cloud Village like originally planned and half the other half, swipe The Sand off the map." General Dai agreed with General Kiro's plan.

Falcon nodded at the strategy. "Generals Gohan, Dai, and Kiro, I want you to take half of the army and march on the Sand Village. Make that place into a sandstorm." The three mentioned generals nodded their heads and prepared to inform their soldiers. "Generals Mizu and Yuki, you're with me and we're headed for the Cloud Village."

Yuki, a quiet general and probably one of the least loyal members of the army questioned the strategy. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" Falcon nodded his head. "The enemy already knows that we are headed for Cloud, why not change the strategy up and strike them where they least expect it again?" Falcon answered as he readied himself for the battle to come.

The Army was divided straight down the middle. 5,000,000 went with Falcon, Mizu, and Yuki towards Cloud. The other 5,000,000 went with Gohan, Dai, and Kiro to Suna. In truth the army wouldn't need to be as large. But this was to make certain that the Axis Alliance would crumble and fall.

Let's take a brief moment to visit Taloga. Though most of the drama was happening over seas, trouble was brewing from the north. Trota, a rebellious city to the north of Taloga, was forming another army. Trota was going to try and conquer the Talogan Empire once more.

This wasn't surprising though. Trota believed itself to be the most powerful force in the world. It always made boasts about its strength and wealth. Most of these boasts were merely propaganda and lies, though there were some truths. Trota was very wealthy and it did have a strong military, it just wasn't what it cracked itself up to look like.

Naruto rubbed his temples as he looked over his reports. Trota was already mobilizing and preparing for war. Naruto knew this was the last straw for the city. He would have no choice but to destroy this city for not only the people's safety. But to prevent the other cities from following Trota's example. Fortunately, many of the cities were loyal to Naruto since he had freed the people in those cities from the oppressive tyrants that called themselves daimyos. So he had no worry on them rebelling. But still, he had to be cautious.

"Konohamaru, please write a letter to Trota. Tell them, if they wish to keep their lives and their city, then they must not rebel. I promised I will have your city destroyed if there is another rebellion after the previous. Mark my words, I will personally destroy your city if you rebel once more." Konohamaru finished writing the letter. "Alright boss, that's what you want it to read?" Naruto looked it over before nodding in approval. "Tell Haytham to deliver the message to Trota. Tell him, if they try to kill you in the city, consider it a no. And if he doesn't come back at all, we will avenge him."

Konohamaru nodded and fetched Haytham. Haytham was a speedy messenger. He was known for his loyalty and for his stamina and for always making it back to Taloga before sundown. He quickly grabbed the letter and rode all the way to Trota to deliver the message. Only he never came back by sundown, a tall-tale indication of what the reply was. Naruto knew what must be done. "Assemble 250,000 men and have them prepare to destroy Trota." Naruto called as he prepared himself for war.

Back on the East Continent, the Talogans marching on Suna were nearing their target. General Gohan decided to attack Suna at midnight since it would give them the opportunity for a surprise attack.

As dusk settled over the city, many of the civilians were uneasy about the possibility of being destroyed. They were told that they would surely have victory over the Talogans and there was no way they could destroy their beloved village. But that didn't stop the feeling of dread from coming over the village.

At midnight, a mighty sandstorm blasted through the desert and even hit Suna. Many of the civilians were in their homes sleeping out the storm. But the sandstorm also hid the movement of the vast army that descended upon the village. The village guards were dispatched before any one of them had the chance to alert the village to the threat. The Talogans poured through the narrow crack that served as Suna's gate.

The next instant anyone knew, Suna was overrun by the Talogan Army. The residents of Suna stood no chance of escape. They were slaughtered within the hour. None had the chance to alert Konoha of their situation. The Kazekage, a man named Rosa (not the same one who was Kazekage before Gaara), was the last man standing. He fought valiantly till the end and that was the end of the destruction of Suna.

General Dai had a sudden impulse to take the army and travel northwards. A gut feeling told him that the other half of the army was in a bit of a pickle. Generals Gohan and Kiro soon agreed and the army marched to Cloud.

It was a good move that they did. A force from Stone and the earth daimyo's army had arrived onto the battlefield where the joint forces of Cloud and Konoha fought against Falcon and his force. It turned out that Yuki had defected to the enemy side of the conflict, leaving Falcon with only General Mizu to help command the Talogans.

That wasn't the only problem though. The Empiral Talogan army was also suffering from heavy casualties. But fortunately, the joint force was suffering from higher casualties. For every Talogan casualty, there were three Axis casualties. However, the Axis had more men arriving by the second and Falcon was down to 3,000 soldiers who weren't injured.

Inoki was smirking with pride as he witnessed the Talogan army shrinking in size. He wished that A could have seen this.

Killer A was killed during the battle by Falcon. Killer Bee, who had seen it happen, took off and ran off the battlefield. Never to be seen or heard from. But that didn't matter now, Falcon was paying dearly for his destruction of Mist.

When evening came, the battle was over for the day. The Talogans already set up guard stations and were weary of any threat. Falcon sat at a table with Mizu and Killer Bee. It turned out that Killer Bee was Falcon's spy in Cloud and Killer Bee was glad for the change of sides. Whenever Killer A joined the Axis, he became harsher to Bee than anybody else. Bee was grateful for the change of pace.

"There must be something we can do. With Yuki defecting over to the enemy's side, we are short one general and we are just down to 3,000 soldiers who are unharmed. All the rest are dead or severely wounded." Mizu said as he looked down at the map. "I know that we are in a predicament. And as for a general is concerned, I think Killer Bee will make a good choice to replace that traitor." Falcon said as he glanced at his spy.

Killer Bee sat straight. "If we are gonna win this, then we are gonna need some reinforcements. It's the only way that we can win." Killer Bee said as he looked at the other two generals. Falcon nodded.

Just then, a guard approached the tent. "Sir, there's an embassy here from the Axis camp." The guard said as he stood at attention. "Send them in." The guard saluted and walked outside the tent. In a few moments, Inoki and Yuki were standing in there.

Falcon almost exploded with rage as he saw Yuki. "General Falcon, you are in no condition to keep fighting us, we ask for your surrender." Inoki said as he smiled wickedly. Falcon suddenly took off his helmet. And what Inoki and Yuki saw was a face that smiled slyly. "So tell me, why do you think I should surrender? The last I checked, I only had 3,000 soldiers that are not casualties, 375,000,000 soldiers that are heavily injured, and the remaining casualties are those that died. What makes you think that I will surrender when I still have a large enough force to fight? A casualty doesn't have to be dead to be considered a casualty." Falcon said as he stood up.

"Also, please step aside Inoki." Falcon said as he vanished and reappeared infront of Yuki. Yuki had no time to react before he was falling to the floor dying. "Thus, always, to traitors." Falcon said as Yuki lay still.

Inoki was shocked at just how fast Falcon moved. Falcon turned to face him. "The answer is no Inoki. And I would be warned if I were you. The Eagle's Brigade will be here tomorrow and with the rest of my force. There will be no help from Suna I'm afraid either. It would be best to prepare and dig your own grave." Falcon said as he smiled yet again.

Inoki left the camp quickly. He was shocked and furious that Suna was rumored to be destroyed now. It made sense now why Falcon was up here. 'That bloody bastard sent a force down to Suna and destroyed while we were busy fighting the rest up here. Dirty, dirty bastard!' Inoki roared in his mind as he approached his tent with the rest of his commanders. They soon sent a messenger eagle to Konoha and alerted them that Suna might be gone.

Back in the Talogan camp, Falcon received a messenger eagle of his own. He smiled as he read the letter. "Well gentlemen, we have reinforcements. Suna is gone for good. General's Dai, Kiro, and Gohan are coming to aid us." Falcon said as he sat back down in his seat.

A quiet and very worn out Hiro took deep breaths to help calm herself down from the terror she saw that day. She had been in a battle before, but never in one strictly to fight. She had a few small cuts and bruises but was fine everywhere else. Her eyes looked to her love who was also battered from the day of fighting. Falcon had been in the thick of the fight all day long and the exhaustion on his face was visible even through the helmet.

"They won't be here until tomorrow at noon though, so we will have to alert them to potential attacks." Mizu said as he looked at the map. "He's right, we'll need to send an eagle to them to alert them of our situation." Killer Bee said as he looked to Falcon.

"Send a messenger eagle to Generals Gohan, Kiro, and Dai. Tell them to come through the night and only get sleep for one hour." Falcon said as he stood to his feet. "We must get rest, we will need it tomorrow." Falcon said as he retired to his tent. The others gathered stared at him. "Well, he does have a habit of making decisions quickly. That's one of the best things to have as a leader, but for regular life, it can be a bit of a challenge." Mizu said as he stood to his full height.

Mizu looked down on the girl that still stared at where Falcon had walked out. "You love that man a lot don't you Hiroko?" Mizu said. Hiro, snapped out of her trance and looked to her uncle. "Yes Uncle, I love him very much. He's done so much for me already. And I can't think of anyone else." Hiro said as she stood to her full height as well.

Mizu took a chance to look down at his niece that he had raised since her father passed. Hiro was roughly a few inches shorter than that Hinata Hyūga girl. But Hiro definitely had a broader build. Not too broad, but broad enough to meant she was strong. Her hair reached down to her lower back much like Hinata's but her bangs weren't as long as Hinata's. Hiro's eyes were slightly narrower, but that was from all the fighting she had done throughout her life.

Hiro spent much of her life fighting. Not in battles, but in home defense. The only times she ever been in battles was to help the wounded so she was always at the camps. This was her first taste of real combat in battle. And it made her shake slightly. The shouts and screams of pain not to mention all the different horrible ways the soldiers were killing each other was maddening. She now saw why Falcon never brought her to these things. They were monsters.

She walked to her tent and tried to get some much needed rest before the chaos of the next battle began tomorrow. In other tents, doctors and medics fought to save as mane lives as possible. Talogan medics and doctors were renown for their ability to bring a man from the brink of death to battle ready in hours. This was a plus for the Talogans who were severely injured from the days fighting and all surprisingly made a swift recovery from their injuries and were ready to fight the next day. Though the soldiers needed to rest.

Down south, the Talogan Army that was being led by Generals Dai, Kiro, and Gohan had resumed their march. They had rested for an hour to regain strength they needed to keep their march up. They were close to the battlefield by now. In fact, they were close enough to make camp and rest until morning and arrive at the battle by noon to start this new battle. And that's what they did.

On the Axis side, Inoki's eagle had landed in Konoha where Danzo had spent much of the night up to learn of how the battle was going. As the eagle landed, Danzo hoped that he had received news of victory. But as he read the message, his anger skyrocketed. "Sai, dispatch a team to Suna at once! Check for survivors!" "Yes Danzo Sir." Sai said as he walked away to gather a team.

The other part of the note informed Danzo that the Talogans were severely hit from the battle, but they weren't surrendering like they offered Falcon. And it seemed that they were headed this way to shift their focus elsewhere. Danzo seethed. Mist should have been expected since the Talogans were closer to them. But from what was gathered on Talogan tactics, the Talogans would often take the most powerful out first before anyone else. But they weren't fighting this way. Danzo couldn't help but scream out of frustration. "CURSE YOU NARUTO! MAY YOU DIE TONIGHT!" Danzo yelled.

In the hallway, Ino stood there and heard the Hokage Usurper scream. 'How can he be a good leader when he has done nothing but been a tyrant to the people?' she asked herself as she walked away. Ino had a patient that needed dire medical attention and Ino had to come and ask for permission to work on the patient as by Danzo's orders. The permission was denied and the patient was now going to die. Inochi, her father, insured Ino that Danzo was helping the people by weeding out the weak.

But a good leader should help the weak not destroy them. Thus Ino swore herself to this. When the time came for Konoha to fall, she would strapped a thousand explosive tags to herself, walk to the nearest wall of the village, and detonate the tags on her body.

But to do this, she would need to get the help to obtain the explosive tags. This part she would have to plan.

As morning rose on the field of battle, The Axis forces peered out into the line of trees that the Talogans were going to come out of. In total, 1,000,000 men were standing there preparing to overrun the 3,000 men that were what remained of the Talogans that weren't dead or pulled off the battlefield. Victory seemed imminent to them.

However, Inoki knew that something was wrong when only Falcon walked out onto the battlefield. He stood there and smirked at the force that was standing before him. "IF I WERE Y'ALL, I'D BE RUNNING TO CLOUD BY THIS POINT!" Falcon called across the field. Inoki laughed along with the resort of the army until, the rest of the Talogans were coming out of the trees.

The Axis alliance stared in disbelief. They realized that almost all these men were severely wounded from yesterday. Now they looked as fresh as they came yesterday.

But this didn't take long for the Axis to roar and charge forward. The Talogans also charged and when the lines met. The cacophony was heard for miles around. The Axis forces held their own, but not they were dwindling. Inoki foolishly sent most of the forces to Cloud the night previously believing that Falcon wouldn't have the chance to bring so many soldiers to the battle in time. He now saw the mistake of his actions and quickly ordered a retreat before noon struck.

"Mizu, have the soldiers halt. We need to wait for Generals Dai, Kiro, and Gohan." Falcon said as he watched the Axis soldiers retreat. "Yes sir." Mizu said before he called for the men to stop advancing. The soldiers did as they were told and waited for the rest of their force to arrive.

Generals Dai, Kiro, and Gohan arrived to see what had been left of the battle for the day. Gohan approached his former student. "Falcon sir, we came as fast as we could." Gohan said as he fell to one knee. "Rise General Gohan. You arrived in the nick of time. We will tend to the wounded." Falcon called as the army began their rest.

Many of the soldiers were confused, but grateful for the much needed rest. Many still needed time to recover from their injuries from the battle yesterday and this was definitely going to be enjoyed.

As the army headed back to camp, the generals discussed their next steps. "We need to strike Cloud down while we have the chance." Killer Bee said as he looked at the map. "Not a good idea, the majority of the Axis Forces are located there at the moment. That's too risky." Gohan said as he studied the map. It was then that a guard ran inside the tent.

"Sir, sorry to interrupt but there's an envoy here who want to talk to you." The guard said rather hastily. "Send the envoy in." Falcon ordered. The envoy appeared into the tent a few minutes later. It was Inoki and a new man that Falcon never saw before. "What have you come here for Inoki?" Falcon asked as he looked down at the man who stood before him. "General Falcon, we have come to ask for a truce. We will not fight you and you leave our continent." Inoki said as he looked into the visor of the man who sat there.

Falcon pondered this. "I will discuss this with my generals and we will get back in touch with you." Falcon said as he stood to his full height and stretched. Falcon sounded like he was frying bacon with his stretch because of how loud and many there were.

Inoki, Hiro, and the others in the tent winced at the sound of Falcon's joints and back popping. But Inoki soon nodded and left for Cloud.

"This sounds like a trap, if we agree, we can be attacked and killed by the Axis forces." Killer Bee said and the others agreed. Falcon thought about the endings for the possibilities. And then made a choice. "We will agree to have a truce. We will leave the eastern continent but they shall be warned that if they rebuild any of the villages we destroyed, there will be no truce left. We will come back in a year." Falcon said.

The people surrounding him looked shocked. "Sir, you think that this plan will suffice?" Mizu asked. "What else can they hope for? They know now that we are much stronger than they are and that they will lose everything if they continue to fight us for now. Plus, we will be needed back in Taloga anyways. I fear that Trota has been rebelling yet again." Falcon said as he stood again and walked to Cloud, alone.

The generals remained where they were. "Well I guess we tell the soldiers to prepare to head home." Gohan said. "We will wait until Falcon comes back." Mizu said as they stared and worked on the documents.

Cloud was in a panic. The Talogan armies were clearly much more powerful than they had first expected and now the threat loomed over them like a fog. But in all of this, there was a sense of pride that coursed through their veins. So when Falcon appeared alone on top of the bridge that protected Cloud, the villagers began to mock him.

This wasn't the same for Inoki, who was about to piss his pants. Falcon looked like he wasn't concerned about the village entirely. He seemed to be calm and collected as he approached the spot where he stood. "I accept your truce, we will leave the continent for a year. In that time, you must not build up any of the villages we have destroyed. My spies will notify me if that is what you have done. I shall come back and truces will be forgotten and the villages lay to rubble. Do you understand?" Falcon asked as he stood there.

"Yes, General Falcon." Inoki said as he nodded his head. Inoki wasn't afraid of men taller than he was, in fact he was insanely strong himself. But Falcon's presence anywhere was terrifying. Power seemed to radiate from Falcon's body. And he had insane control over it as well.

Falcon nodded and started his walk back to his camp. Inoki, fainted from the stress that had plagued his body from the experience. He was soon taken to the Cloud's hospital and given medical treatment.

Falcon made it back to the Talogan Camp and gave orders to leave the Eastern Continent. "I'm afraid we are needed elsewhere." Falcon said as they marched rapidly to the Kiros located twelve miles north of the ruins of Mist. They were soon on their way back to the Talogan Empire.

In Konoha, news spread of another village that had been destroyed. Sai's team found Suna in a mass of rubble and bodies. A terrible stench was over the ruins from the bodies that were decomposing. Sai found what the Talogans had done to be maddening. Hopelessness was present even for Sai as he walked back to Danzo's office.

Just then a messenger eagle came from the north. It went straight for the Hokage tower. Sai wondered about the eagle as he approached the Hokage's office to give his report. "Well Sai, give me your report." Danzo said as he read the message. "Suna was nothing but ruins and dead bodies. The Talogans spared no one." Sai said as he stood there.

Danzo seethed with rage. "Inoki has made a truce with the Talogan Commander. The Talogans are headed back to their homes over the seas for about a year and then coming back to finish what they started. And here we lost three important members of our Alliance to these fools!" Danzo raged. "But if the Talogans target Konoha next, there won't be any hope for victory. Inoki must have had his reasons to beg for a truce." Sai said as he looked down at the paper.

Danzo looked up then finally nodded. "You're right Sai. Maybe these Talogans are something we can't handle just yet, we must start amassing the armies to larger sizes and build forts." Danzo said as he looked at the paper. 'One year without war. Just barely enough time to prepare.' Danzo thought as he looked to the Hokage rock. His face now showed on the rock and was grander than any of the other faces.

Back in the Talogan Empire. Trota lay in ruins. Naruto saw it fit to have every single citizen of that city killed. The Trotans fought long and hard. But they didn't win. Naruto ordered the city to be reduced to ashes. Which many of the Talogan soldiers did so happily.

Naruto closed his eyes at the carnage he had caused. Most of the destruction came from him alone. That was of course with the help of Kurama. But it didn't take the guilt away.

Naruto had to look to the bright side though. He was marrying Hinata in a month and she was already excited about the wedding. I won't go into details on how Naruto proposed. But I will talk about it next chapter.